Samus Aran
, Jessica Martin , Alesia Glidewell , Ai Kobayashi }} Samus Aran (Japanese: Samus Aran) is an intergalactic Bounty Hunter and the main protagonist of the Metroid series. She is an ex-soldier of the Galactic Federation, usually fitted with a powered exoskeleton with weapons that include directed-energy weapons and missiles. Throughout the series, she executes missions given to her by the Galactic Federation while hunting the antagonistic Space Pirates and their leader Ridley along with the parasitic energy-draining organisms called Metroids. Development The style for the original Metroid game was designed to be a cross between the side-scrolling gameplay of the Super Mario games and the exploration and puzzle-solving aspects of The Legend of Zelda series, with inspiration from science fiction. The game's characters were conceived by Makoto Kano, while Hiroji Kiyotake designed the main protagonist Samus Aran. Samus is able to collapse into a ball to travel through tight areas. The ability, called the Maru Mari (meaning "round ball" in Japanese) in the original Metroid, and later the more popular name of Morph Ball in Super Metroid, was conceived by the developers because it required less effort to animate than "a cyborg crawling on all fours", and the producer for Metroid, Gunpei Yokoi, took advantage of this shortcut. The original game's atmosphere was influenced by Ridley Scott's 1979 film, Alien. The series' co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto recalled, "We were partway through the development process when one of the staff members said 'Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?'" The developers voted on the concept, and it passed. The game's instruction manual refers to Samus as if she were male to keep her true gender a secret until the end of the game. Samus was one of the first major female protagonists in a video game. Although Toby Masuyo ("Kissy") from Namco's Alien Sector predates her by one year as a female protagonist, Guinness World Records 2013: Gamer's Edition declared Samus as "the first playable human female character in a mainstream videogame", and as being "enduringly" popular, noting that sales of the Metroid series has exceeded 17.44 million copies as of 22 September 2012. Sakamoto noted that during the course of the Metroid series, developers constantly try to express Samus's femininity without turning her into a sex object. Samus's image was based on actress Kim Basinger from 9½ Weeks and My Stepmother is an Alien. Sakamoto and Kiyotake said that the character's last name "Aran" was taken from Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the birth name of famous soccer player Pelé. Suits The various Suits that Samus wears that aid her in overcoming obstacles. Power Suit The Power Suit is a powered battle armor technology invented by the Chozo. Samus apparently wears a modification to the usual Power Suit technology on her many adventures. This basic suit is equipped with an Arm Cannon and Morph Ball technologies, but the modular nature of the suit allows it to be augmented with additional weaponry, visors, and defensive and maneuvering capabilities. The Chozo scientist Dryn was largely responsible for the development of the Power Suit. The Chozo technology at work in the suit make it highly versatile; the Power Suit may upload data, accept weapons and modifications, and adapt to the changes immediately. Varia Suit The Varia Suit is a recurring Power Suit upgrade. It is of Chozo origin. The Varia Suit is often the first upgrade to a suit that is obtained. However, in Metroid Prime Hunters, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Samus never acquires this suit, as it is already active from the beginning. Throughout the Metroid series, the function of the Varia Suit, as with many upgrades, differs slightly. Gravity Suit Fusion Suit Phazon Suit Zero Suit Samus usually wears the Zero Suit under her suits. It covers Samus completely from neck to toe in a blue form-fitting body suit with pink Chozo markings on her back, left breast, and hands. In the Zero Suit, Samus becomes more flexible and agile than before. However, she becomes very vulnerable without any of her suits, having nothing but an emergency pistol to protect herself with. Prior to its debut in Metroid: Zero Mission, Samus has always been pictured in a bikini or in underwear when not wearing one of her suits or in the event of the suit exploding. In the Super Smash Bros. series, Zero Suit Samus appears as a playable character. She is equipped with her emergency pistol from Metroid: Zero Mission (dubbed the Paralyzer) which can be used as a laser whip, and Jet Boots that help her deliver powerful kicks with ease. She is incredibly agile, possessing one of the fastest dashing speeds and highest jumps in both Brawl and Smash 4. However, she is also very light, allowing her to be KO'd earlier than most characters. Dark Suit Light Suit Appearances Gallery PowerSuitPrime.png Samus - Other M.png SamusPrime2.png Category:Heroines Category:Nintendo Characters